Opposition in NA gets united on loadshedding issue

ISLAMABAD: All the opposition parties joined hands in the National Assembly (NA) on Monday and boycotted the proceedings of the House as a mark of protest against the worst loadshedding in many parts of the country and over 250 deaths in Karachi due to the hot weather and power outages.
As the House started its proceedings on Monday, the opposition members belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Awami National Party (ANP), after registering their protest, walked out of the NA till its adjournment.
The JI parliamentarians carrying placards inscribed with slogans ‘Stop the loadshedding’ assembled in front of the Speaker’s dais and raised slogans.As the opposition members wanted to speak on points of order, the speaker said each and everybody could not be given time. Syed Khursheed Shah said one member from each party may be given time to speak on the issue.
Shazia Marri of the PPP demanded convening a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to discuss the issue. “The PML-N leadership contested the 2013 election on the issue of electricity but it is limiting itself to the Punjab province only,” she said.
The PPP parliamentarian said that responsibility of supplying electricity to Karachi was with a private company. She said that as per the agreement, K-Electric was bound to upgrade the system but it had failed to do so.
Drawing the attention of the government, Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the PTI said that there had been no electricity in Tharparkar since June 6.
He pointed out the KP province was producing electricity more than its requirement but the people there were still suffering from severe loadshedding. “People are asking as to why the government which is spending lavishly on advertisements for its publicity and projects like Metro has not been able to meet the shortage of electricity,” he said.
Abdul Waseem of the MQM demanded the resignation of the minister for water and power, saying that the government had badly failed to fulfil its promise of putting an end to loadshedding.
Sahibzada Tariqullah of the JI said that many parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were suffering 20-hour-long loadshedding. Aftab Khan Sherpao and Ghulam Ahmad Bilour also criticised the government for its failure to control the power outages. They suggested that a committee should be formed to find an out-of-box solution of the crisis.
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad of the Awami Muslim League said all the opposition parties were united on the issue of loadshedding.Taking advantage of the absence of the opposition, the treasury benches adopted 49 more Demands for Grants for the fiscal year 2015-2016 for different ministries, divisions and departments on which the opposition had moved the cut motion.
The demands related to the Cabinet Division, Aviation Division, Airports Security Force, Capital Administration and Development Division, Establishment Division, National Security Division, Communication Division, Foreign Affairs Division, Interior Division, Narcotics Control Division, National Food Security and Research Division, Petroleum and Natural Resources Division, Planning, Development and Reforms Division, Water and Power, Federal Public Service Commission, Meteorology, Prime Minister’s Office, Board of Investment, Atomic Energy, Stationery and Printing, Passport Organisation, Civil Armed Forces, Frontier Constabulary, Pakistan Coast Guards, Pakistan Rangers, Geological Survey and Suparco.
With the approval of the grants and demands, the NA will now take up the Finance Bill 2016 today (Tuesday) to get the fiscal year 2015-2106 budget approved. It will take effect from July 1.
It is likely that after getting approval of the Finance Bill 2016, the National Assembly will also give approval to the Supplementary Budget of the fiscal year 2014-15.
While talking to newsmen outside the Parliament House after staging a walkout on Monday, the Opposition Leader in the NA Syed Khursheed Shah pointed out that he felt his party’s failure was its inability to address the water and power woes of the people.
He emphasised that the prime minister’s promise that there would be no loadshedding during the month of Ramazan had never been fulfilled. He pointed out that across Pakistan, over 250 people had lost their lives due to the heatwave. He said the government’s failure had brought the opposition parties on one platform.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that while loadshedding had been a longstanding problem in Pakistan but power outages had never been so long so that more than 100 lives were lost due to heatstroke. He said that Tharparkar has reportedly been without electricity since June 6.
He criticised the government for having doubled the power-tariff but miserably failing to address the line losses. “They paid a hefty amount for clearing the circular debt but once again the dues have risen to Rs300 billion,” Qureshi added.
Parliamentary leader of MQM Rasheed Godel came down hard on the government saying Karachi’s water and power woes had aggravated. He criticised the prime minister and finance minister, complaining that they don’t even have time to meet elected representatives from the city that provides 68pc of the revenue to the government.
He alleged that the government was only interested in projects that make it look big — citing the metro bus project.